Elbows with Italian Sausage and Onions

I have recently adopted a puppy (lab mix!) so it has been ten times more difficult to cook anything extravagant when I cannot spend hours to prep and cook.  So, what are some of the easier things to make in short notice?  Pasta!

I love pasta in all sorts of shapes and sizes, but the classic elbow macaroni can do no wrong.  It's versatile, bite-size, and cooks quickly.

Elbows with Italian Sausage and Onions

Pasta Ingredients:
- box of elbow pasta (I used Barilla)
- Italian sausage
- 1 med/sm onion chopped

Sauce:
- tomato sauce (Ragu traditional)
- seasonings (basil, oregano, garlic powder)
- whole milk

For today's lunchbox, I had precooked the sausage over the weekend.

The way I cook my sausage is fairly simple.  I heat up the pan, put the sausages in whole, let it sizzle, add a splash of water and cover it to simmer on a medium heat.  Once the water is dried and the sausage is brown, I take it out and put it into a container.  Even if the inside is not fully cooked, when I take it out and cut it up to cook, it finishes up nicely.  Total cooking time can vary, usually it takes me about 20 minutes.

First, heat up your water and boil the pasta.  I let this go on the side while I prep my ingredients.  Your total cooking time if pasta and ingredients are cooked simultaneously should take around 15-20 minutes.

I sliced up the sausage and chopped my onions.  I heated up the pan with vegetable oil and fried the onions.  After they were cooked through and browning, I added in the sausage.  Stir and cook it for a few minutes.  Once the flavors are wafting to your nose, add in your desired amount of tomato sauce.  For my sauce today, I mixed in about 1/4 cup of whole milk to make a lighter sauce.  Add in your seasonings to taste and then let it simmer.

Before or close to this point, your pasta should be fully cooked.  Drain it and then you can add it straight to the pan and mix it with the sauce.

Then, put into a bowl to serve.  Enjoy!